Renovation & Interior Design Materials Marketplace HOMA2u Raises Capital From Asia Fund X to Further Drive Regional Expansion
The capital injection will further the firm’s push into new markets outside of Malaysia and bolster its product offerings.
HOMA2u founders, Pennie and James, with MSW Ventures GP, Jeffrey Seah, at HOMA2u Investor Day
HOMA Sdn Bhd (HOMA2u), a leading Malaysian marketplace for overstocked and new renovation and interior design materials, announced today that it has secured an additional USD $625,000 from Asia Fund X in its pre-series A funding round.
Asia Fund X, backed by MSW Ventures and anchored by Pavilion Capital, has joined Homa2u's roster of investors. They accompany existing backers such as Quest Ventures Asia Fund II, Worldwide Management Solutions, and Qhazanah Sabah Berhad (QSB), the strategic investment arm of the Sabah state government. With this addition, HOMA2u has successfully raised a total of USD $1.5 Million in its Pre-Series A round. This funding will be instrumental in supporting the company's carbon reduction tracking initiatives and its expansion beyond its home market.
Committed to sustainability as a core business driver, HOMA2u is reinforcing its environmental commitment to achieve significant, measurable results. To this end, HOMA2u will collaborate with certified environmental consultants across the region to quantify the carbon footprint impact throughout the supply chain associated with repurposing overstock materials. Notably, each sale of overstock tiles saves approximately 16.42 kg of CO2 per m², preventing disposal and reducing the need for new tile production. The carbon reduction at HOMA2u is meticulously quantified using established industry standards and scientific best practices. HOMA2u ensures a thorough and transparent accounting of its carbon footprint, setting new industry benchmarks and issuing green certificates to the companies that it is working with.
To date, HOMA2u has repurposed more than RM20 million worth of overstock inventories to more than 8,000 homes. At the start of 2024, Homa set out a target to save 7.5m kg of carbon by the end of the year.
Pennie Lim, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HOMA2u added, “As HOMA2u commemorates its 7-year journey, it stands now at the precipice of a new era, driven by innovation and sustainability. Our vision for HOMA2u remains to redefine the business landscape for the built environment, but we are also cognizant of the sustainable impact we bring to the table. We are committed to expanding HOMA2u’s offerings outside of Malaysia and Singapore, specifically into high-growth regions such as Taiwan and Japan where attitudes towards ESG construction move in strikingly similar ways.”
HOMA2u Team
HOMA2u continues to push ahead with its regional expansion plans through its core online-to-offline marketplace offering of overstock and retail renovation & building materials, including via innovative initiatives like its Yellow Boxes. It has since begun servicing the Singapore market out of its Johor Bahru office. The company intends to quickly establish a physical presence within the country, and materialise its pipeline of projects and collaborations with existing players in the built environment industry.
Quintessential to its expansion approach has been the build-up of the Pro+ ecosystem. With over 1000 interior designers, architects, suppliers, contractors, corporates and various other industry players, Pro+ serves as the platform for the community to congregate and benefit from HOMA2u’s curated perks and value-adding services centred around its own marketplace offerings.
James Yeoh, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of HOMA2u, emphasised the importance of the underlying tech layer powering the value creation, adding, “HOMA2U continues to refine its matching and recommendation systems between inventory and possible customer needs and wants. This gives us data about our customers’ profiles, allowing us to further refine our value propositions to them, while also refining our inventory acquisition strategy as we lead the charge in transforming waste into invaluable resources.”
HOMA2u is well positioned as an early adopter to capitalise on increasing consumer scrutiny on sustainable building and renovation practices. Yet circular economy mindsets have gained cadence organically, ahead of regulator attention or duress. HOMA2u aims to consolidate the new ESG focused landscape through agglomerating its industry networks, accumulated expertise, tech and consumer trust.
Jeffrey Seah, General Partner at AFX, added, “HOMA2u has continued to make headways into traditional industries known for being monopolistically competitive or insular oligopolies. Sustainability is not merely a competitive advantage, but part of wider industry trends towards a circular economy. HOMA2u’s achievements reflect more so the mature business acumen of Pennie and James, and the scale of the market opportunity at hand. The company’s true competitive advantage comes from its foundations set via digital platform capabilities synergised with AI-powered data analytics - quintessential hallmarks of digital economy revolution. We look to Pennie and James to scale HOMA2u across the region, bolstered by the wider business world's maturing awareness of ESG.”
About HOMA
Leading the initiative of Reduce, Reuse and Repurpose for Home Improvement through innovative shopping experience; HOMA is a New Retail platform that offers building material and home finishing products at bargains that focus on sustainability.
Founded in 2017, HOMA has repurposed more than RM20 million worth of overstock inventories to more than 8,000 homes. The platform currently houses more than 1000 professional profiles including Architect, Interior Designer, Contractor.
Led by Founders Pennie Lim and James Yeoh, the company has a team of 16 from diverse industries creating enviable strong culture poised for strong growth. Serving both KL and JB market, HOMA's next expansion plan is 10 more new locations by 2022 using the manless material box concept namely Yellow Box to reach the target RM100m milestone by 2024.
Make an impact now at http://www.homa2u.com
About MSW Ventures
MSW Ventures supports Asia Fund X (AFX), a successor to Asia Fund II (AFII), in its search for exceptional growth models and founders with the X factor within the transformative digital economy of Southeast Asia. The firm values bold, mainstream-oriented, and mature-minded founders whose startups exhibit sustainable growth, quality revenue, and validated market-priced product-market fit. Jeffrey Seah serves as General Partner at AFX. Throughout his career at multinational corporations WPP and Publicis Groupe, Jeffrey has advised global and regional C-suites on developing coordinated commercial go-to-market strategies across various geographies.
